Sometime between the mid70's and perhaps very early 80s I saw a feature-length animated film in a theater, a sword-and-sorcery type adventure involving good dragons and bad dragons, a lone hero who at one point had an epic battle with a fearsome evil dragon who nearly burned him to a crisp but which he somehow resisted with his shield while also almost falling off a cliff; I think he managed to kill the dragon with a powerful sword. Probably rescued a princess in there somewhere too, I'm not quite sure about that. Sometime in the middle of the film there's a long journey the good guys have to take, perhaps across water, on the backs of the good dragons.

I know I once identified this movie on wikipedia a few years back but forgot to write down the title; I've since scoured the list of disney & other animated films and can't find anything resembling it. Help!

I should add: it was definitely *not* "The Flight of Dragons". I watched a few clips from this and despite superficial resemblances in a few scenes, this is not the movie I am thinking of. The film I'm seeking was a little darker and more dramatic in tone and plot, a little less cartoonish than TFOD. I'm also pretty sure the dragon in the great battle describe was quite dark/black, and the battle went on for a little while (it's quickly over in Flight of Dragons).

The only movie I can think of that comes close is Dragonslayer.